Survey finds gender pay gap

Women's group advocates equal pay legislation.

Women's group advocates equal pay legislation.

September 24, 2008|By ALISON COSTELLO Capital News Service

LANSING -- The Ask a Working Woman Survey polled 12,000 working women across the country and found, more than anything, they want raises. Nationally, women earn about 78 percent of what men make, according to 2007 U.S. Census data. The statistics are worse in Michigan. Several bills to close the income gap have come and gone through the legislation process, but Mary Pollock, vice president of Michigan National Organization of Women (NOW), doesn't see help coming soon. "We're trying to get our society to quit using gender as a factor in determining pay but all of these bills will not see the light of day in the Senate." She said employers want to minimize the requirements they have to legally meet, and equal pay laws would be more work. "They're afraid of it. They don't understand it." Pollock said she hopes legislation will be passed to force employers to pay based on skill level, not gender. NOW found that in some cases, parking lot attendants, which are usually low skill level jobs, were paid more than child care workers "Traditional pink collar jobs are paid less than traditional blue collar jobs and some of the pink collar jobs are at a higher skill level," she said. Pink collar work refers to employment in traditionally female-dominated roles, such as clerical or housekeeping jobs. The income gap is bigger in Michigan because the state has a lot of high-paid manufacturing jobs, most of which belong to men, Mary Pollock said. The survey, the sixth of its kind conducted online by Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, also suggests women believe that they have little time for themselves, and if they had more, half would work a second job. "Women's issues are really economic issues," Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Oakland, said. "Women are the ones who make the decisions about health care and about what kind of food gets brought into the house, how to raise the kids and how kids should be spending their free time." Most women say having children has hurt their careers. Because caregiving falls heavier on women's shoulders, working women use their paid leave to care for children or other family members. Other women's issues are coming to a close. A bill NOW calls the "Pregnant Worker Protection Act" was just passed in the Michigan House of Representatives which would shield pregnant women from discrimination in the workplace.